Happy Campers
by Anonymous Basement Dweller
Summary: Jaune and Ruby have been close friends since they first met. But what happens when Ruby realises that she wants to be more than that?
1. Got Me in Stitches

Team RNJR were finished protecting a village from a large pack of Ursi in exchange for resources. After three hours of walking they were too tired and injured to walk much further, so they set up camp. "What's for dinner?" Ruby asked as she noticed the sky darken and Jaune getting a fire burning.

"I'll give you three guesses…" Jaune said focused on lighting a spark.

"Right… pancakes…" Ruby rolled her eyes and sat on a log.

"What's wrong with pancakes!" Nora crossed her arms and giving Ruby an intimidating glare.

"What's wrong with wanting a bit of -ah- variety!" Ruby hissed with a grunt from her injury from the Ursa fight but did her best to hide her pain. "You need a hand Jaune?"

"Na I'm fine…" Jaune said as he finally got a flame. "See, I did it!" only for it to die within seconds. "Ugh! These matches are so bad!"

Ruby giggled at Jaune's expense. "Here let me help you…" She went over to him grabbing various materials from her backpack.

"Why do you have those in your bag?" Jaune asked as Ruby sat down next to him.

"Flint and Steel, Qrow says to always carry some with you when camping." Ruby explained before grabbing his hand. "Here I'll -AH- teach you how to do it."

"Ruby…. What're you doing…" Jaune blushed as her warm hand didn't let go of his hand. Despite his armoured glove, he could vividly feel the touch of her hand. **_Why isn't she letting go? C'mon Jaune be cool, be cool!_**

She giggled in an attempt to try and maintain her composure. _**Why did I grab his hand again?** **Oh right!**_ "First grab the flint and hold it like this," She placed the rock between Jaune's left thumb and forefinger. "Make sure an edge is -OW- hanging out about this long." She pinched her fingers about 2 or 3 inches apart. She took the other material she retrieved from her bag "Now get the Char between your thumb and the flint. Take the back of the steel striker…" She slipped the steel into Jaune's right hand "and strike the steel against the flint!" Jaune followed her directions until sparks from the steel flew off and landed on the char cloth, resulting in a small light. "Now fold up your char cloth into the tinder nest like this…" she demonstrated to Jaune "and gently blow on it to start a flame." Jaune did just that as the fire lit up.

"YES!" Jaune yelled. "Thanks Rubes!" He held her in a hug. **_Why Jaune why!_** He let go of her after realising how awkward he made everything. The look on Ruby's place was priceless however.

"Y…. y-you're welcome…" She stuttered still frozen from Jaune's embrace. **_He probably thinks I'm a big weirdo! It's just Jaune why am I acting so awkward around him!? It's not like I like him or anything… wait, do I? Na of course not!_**

"Ruby? Jaune? Guys? Guyyyyys! GUYS!" Nora woke the pair up from their own subconscious. "Your cape is burning!"

"Wait what!? AHHHHHHH!" Her panic was stopped by a boot stomping on her singed cape. "Phew… thanks Jaune…." She stood up and sat back over on the log.

The group enjoyed a set of pancakes together and got ready for bed. Ren, Nora and Jaune got in their respective swags with two of three of them quickly dosing off. Jaune however had not been good when it came to sleep. If he wasn't out on secret training sessions with his recordings from Beacon, he was having nightmares of when everything came crashing down. He missed his old life so much, he missed the time when all he had to worry about were assignments and if Weiss will go out with him. He missed not having the weight of the world on his shoulders. But most of all he missed **her** , the one thing he was searching for was right there all along. The sheer thought of losing more of his friends who were more like family at this point brought him to tears.

He heard sobbing that wasn't his own, so he got out of camping swag to investigate. "Ruby?" he saw her sitting next to a dismantled swag and soaking in the pouring rain.

The red-haired huntress turned around. "J-Jaune… what're you -OW- doing still up? AH!"

"I can't sleep, what about you? Are you ok?"

"I'm -OW- I'm fine…" She mumbled too weak to properly speak.

"By fine do you mean f*cked up, insecure, neurotic and emotional?" He joked walking over to her, "Why aren't you in your swag?"

"Ants…" She answered she pointed at her swag. "OWIEE!" she covered her arm as she screamed in pain.

"What happened?" as he grabs her arm and rolls her sleeve up to reveal a claw lodged halfway into her wrist. "Holy sh*t Ruby! Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I-I…" Ruby couldn't answer due to her painful injury. Jaune looked at the wound. **_Crap… I'm gonna have to pull it out! I can do this, I can do this! Ruby is counting me, look at her! She's in so much pain! I gotta do this, for her._**

"Ok, I'm gonna pull it out. Here…" He tightly gripped her other hand, locking his fingers in between Ruby's as hers did the same. "When I do, squeeze my hand extremely tightly alright?" Ruby replied with a nervous nod. "Do you trust me?" she nodded again but more confident. "3… 2… 1… now." He pulled out the tooth and she squeezed his hand simultaneously.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed and sobbed. "Jaune, it hurts so much!"

"It's ok, it's all ok..." Jaune said soothingly calming her down. **_She's squeezing my hand so tight!_** "Come with me, we need to get outta the rain and grab some supplies." He walked with her and returned back to his quite roomie swag grabbing the first aid kit he kept in there and retrieved the supplies. "Rubes… I gotta stitch up the wound." He prepared both her and himself for the stitch. _**Ew… it looks so gross, I'm gonna be sick! Is that blood spilling!? Ok this isn't good.** "You're losing blood!" **Oh no, I gotta hurry!**_

 **Oh that's why I feel so slee… WAKE UP I gotta stay awake!** "P-please hurry… it hurts, and I feel like I'm g-gonna f-faint!" Ruby slurred her words due to her blood loss before looking up at him and closing her eyes, preparing for the took a nervous breath before slowly puncturing her skin with said needle with the thread to follow as he repeated it until the bloody gap in her arm was sealed. "Is it done?"

"Yeah… it's all over now." Jaune wrapped some bandages around her wrist.

 _Phew… I feel much better…_ "How did you know how use stitches?"

"One of my sisters is a nurse, when she found out I was leaving to mistral she taught me how to do it."

"I'm surprised you didn't puke" She joked. "Hehe Vomit-Boy…"

"Ha ha Crater-face." He responded sarcastically. "We need to get some rest."

"But my swag is infested with ants…" Ruby objected. "Can't exactly sleep there."

"Well… you can sleep here if you want…" Jaune offered, Ruby's face turned red in response. His comment was followed by an awkward silence.

"I don't really see any other option…" She finally answered. **_Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!_** They both shuffled around until they were both comfortable, well as comfortable as an, albeit large, camping swag. "Cosy huh…" _It's actually not that awkward… It's not that bad._

"At least we aren't cold from the rain." Jaune was surprised to feel her embrace clinging on to him tightly and even more so to feel a blush on his face. "Hey Ruby… why didn't you tell anyone about the claw in your arm?"

"I'm sorry… I didn't want to be a burden on you. I thought I could handle it on my own, I thought if I ignore the pain till I'm alone, I could handle it without disturbing anyone. You and the others always seemed to have your hands full, especially since you've- We've had to cope with everything, I didn't want to add to that."

"You can't repress everything, you need to tell us if you're hurting. We can't help you if we don't know you need help. So, from now on tell me when you're in pain, ok?" Jaune held her even tighter.

"Ok Jaune." Ruby always trusted Jaune, more than anyone else except maybe Yang. She had only ever opened up on a personal level to them and with Yang not around and at an all-time low, Jaune was all she had. Ruby had a realisation as she reminisced her memories with him **_Crap… I have a crush on him._**

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 **AN: I've been wanting to make a story in the context of the show for a while and this is it. I'll probably make another one but as it is right now, this is a one-shot. Thats all.**


	2. Dear Jaune,

_**AN: This chapter is gonna be different from the other chapters or anything I've written to begin with but I think you'll still like it nonetheless.**_

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 _Dear Jaune,_

 _I'm not sure if you'll ever see this but either way, I need to get some things straight, I think this'll be the best way to do that. Since the moment I met you, we really clicked and through everything, Beacon and this whole journey through Mistral you've always been there and I like to think I've done the same for you or at least I try to._

 _It's been about three weeks since you helped me pull that sharp claw out of my arm and you let me stay with you in your bed-swag thingy. And since that night, I realised something,_

 _I love you._

 _I think I always have but never realised it since I didn't really know what love is, I still don't, but at least I know that if you get nervous or get rosy cheeks around someone it means you like them. You are so much stronger than you realise, to the point where you are almost unrecognisable. Gone are the days of Vomit-Boy, now you are strong, brave, kind, funny, cute- I'm rambling, as you can probably tell I'm just writing what ever comes to mind with a little help from Ren, he's surprisingly good with all this lovey-dovey stuff. What I'm trying to say is that I'm proud of you and I'm always here as a friend or something more..._

 _The way you make me feel is honestly pretty odd for me, I mean there were a couple of cute guys in signal that caught my fancy but nothing that really meant anything. But with you I just... I don't know how to describe it, every time I see you I just want to kiss you and tell you how much you mean to me but I always freeze up... Regardless, if you find this from either me, or Nora searching through all my stuff again, I want you to know that I love you with all the love my heart can possibly give._

 _LOTS of love,_

 _Ruby Rose_

"There... done." Ruby let out a sigh of relief. "You think I should give it to him."

"Leave it for now, I'm not sure If either of you are ready for a confession" Ren advised.

"Are you sure, what if it keeps bottling up to the point, where he just becomes unapproachable?" Ruby let out a disappointed whimper. "I just want to do it as soon as possible. Hell, I've been putting off writing this for too long until you said you'd help me."

"Ruby... I totally get that, but with Jaune's state right now... I'm not sure about giving it to him"

"I... ok, you're right." Ruby looked down. Ren put his hand on her shoulder.

"For the record, I think you'd make a perfect couple." Ren assured her.

"So would you and Nora." She replied.

"W-what..." Ren blushed. _How'd she find out!?_

"You and Nora, everyone knows you two are into each other."

"N-no... I don't like her." Ren blushed harder at the sheer thought of him and Nora together-together. "She's only my extremely close, cute, hyper, funny... perfect in every way..." Ren sighed at his own slip up.

"Ok, change of plans." Ruby rips a piece of paper out of her book. "You are writing a letter."

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 _ **AN: Sorry this chapter is short but I hope you enjoyed**_


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